


Mama

by MerMagicAnaLily



Series: AM Adulthood [1]
Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: F/M, Teenage Pregnancy, angst with happy ending, homeless teens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-01-21 03:33:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21292937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MerMagicAnaLily/pseuds/MerMagicAnaLily
Summary: Bex frowned, then softened, connecting the few dots she saw. “Do you need someone to talk to?” Elena looked at her wide-eyed, in fear at first. Her bottom lip quivered and she couldn’t even open her mouth fully before she burst into tears. Bex stood there shocked, but only for a second before her instincts kicked in and she hugged this girl, only a few years older than Andi, only two or three years older, and she was crying in a total stranger’s arms. “It’s okay...it’s okay…” she said, rubbing the girl’s back.
Relationships: Rebecca "Bex" Mack/Bowie Quinn
Series: AM Adulthood [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1581883
Comments: 3
Kudos: 24





	Mama

The worst part of Bex’s job had to be cleaning up. Since opening Cloud 10, she loved chatting with clients, doing their hair and makeup, and occasionally indulging in typical “salon talk” and hearing about the gossip of their sleepy little town. Not much typically happened in Shadyside. The biggest news the past five months was when Cyrus and T.J. went public as a couple. 

People were generally accepting, albeit confused, and resorted to stereotypes. But in a way, she had those stereotypes to thank because T.J. got tired about being asked for advice about clothes, makeup, and hair simply because he was gay, so he grabbed a giant box of Bex’s business cards and started giving them out to whoever asked him stereotypical “GBF” questions. Cyrus even got in on it and bought him a business card holder. 

So when a new high schooler walked through the doors, Bex assumed that she was one of the girls that T.J. gave a business card to, but she wasn’t going to judge prematurely on if she was a girl who desperately wanted a “Gay Best Friend.”

“Hey, take a seat right there, let me get a fresh set of brushes real quick while these dry out.”

The girl nodded and made her way to the chair in front of the vanity, staring at her reflection while Bex finished up the cleaning and grabbed her extra apron of makeup brushes and made her way over to the girl. “Hi, I’m Bex Mack.”

“Elena Vargas,” the girl said timidly. 

“Hey Elena. So...what are we doing today?”

“Um...you do eyebrows, right?”

“I can thread or pluck them, but not wax, is that okay?”

“Yeah...threading please?”

Bex nodded and grabbed the thread and instructed Elena on how to hold herself as she got started, working on the middle first. “So, do you go to Grant?” 

“Yeah.”

“How do you like it there? My daughter almost went but she got accepted to SAVA, so now she’s all the way up there, and her friends are at Grant.”

“It’s...it’s fine…” she said. Bex frowned, and kept going for a little bit longer, getting through the middle part, but when she went to go thread the eyebrows themselves, she noticed Elena was shaking more than she was before. Bex paused and put the thread down on the vanity counter. She then grabbed the other chair and sat down across from her. 

“Are you okay sweetie?” She asked. “Do you need some water? Tea?”

“I...it...it has to be decaf tea…”

“Okay, I can make you some chamomile tea,” she said. “Honey in it?” Elena nodded, and Bex got up and brewed some team adding a bit of honey before handing it to her. “Better?” Elena nodded. “So...did T.J. Kippen refer you here?” She asked. “He’s been handing out my business cards.”

“N...no…I heard about you ...really...like...three years ago…? My aunt is in the same book club as Leslie Goodman…”

“Leslie Goodma-oh...about me and my daughter?” She asked. “You’re the first person not to actively avoid me while knowing about my past.”

“Actually…”

Bex frowned, then softened, connecting the few dots she saw. “Do you need someone to talk to?” Elena looked at her wide-eyed, in fear at first. Her bottom lip quivered and she couldn’t even open her mouth fully before she burst into tears. Bex stood there shocked, but only for a second before her instincts kicked in and she hugged this girl, only a few years older than Andi, only two or three years older, and she was crying in a total stranger’s arms. “It’s okay...it’s okay…” she said, rubbing the girl’s back. 

“I’m sorry…” she whimpered out. “I’m sorry...I just...I had no idea where to go...and you ...your past…maybe I thought you would know what to do...and you don’t even know me…” she hiccuped between her words. Bex was sure she’d never seen anyone cry that hard before...except maybe herself about fourteen years ago. 

“It’s okay...sometimes a stranger can be the exact person you need at the moment…”

“I...I made a huge mistake…”

“Oh honey…”

“I...I don’t know what to do…I took that stupid test like fourteen times…”

Bex sighed. “So...sweetie? Are you…?”

She nodded, crying. “I’m pregnant…”

* * *

_ “Fuck...fuck…” a sixteen year old Bex looked down at the white stick in her hands, sitting against the bathroom door as an extra precaution that nobody would walk in on her. That stupid stick had two lines on it...pregnant. Rebecca Mack was sixteen and pregnant. She and Bowie had hooked up a few times, but they always thought they had enough protection…stupid condom must have broken one time without them noticing.  _

_ What could she do? What should she even do? _

_ Well, the first thing she had to do was wash the stick and hide it, and it’s box, in her backpack, and then go to the part or the diner and throw it out in the trash there. If her mom saw this...oh god if her mom saw this, she would really be dead.  _

_ Celia Mack was not a woman you crossed and lived to tell the tale. Celia Mack was someone who set the highest of high standards on her only daughter. Celia Mack covered the fridge with pamphlets to Ivy League Schools and set Stanford as the safety school. Celia Mack was not going to be a grandmother for another ten or twenty years...looks like that was going to change.  _

_ Bex looked at the door, then at her phone, the simplest, cheapest, Nokia that her parents would shell out money for. Her finger hovered over the keypad, looking at the selected name on her phone: Bowie. Should she tell him? It’s his kid after all, he was the only one she slept with, so she should tell him right? _

_ But he had so many dreams aspirations, yeah it was to be a musician in his band, touring around the world, but that didn’t mean he didn’t deserve to be a part of this...he deserved a full life, not one of teenage fatherhood. No...he didn’t have to know. So she pressed the end button on her phone, and shut it off. Now, came the hard part: pretending that everything was fine. _

* * *

“Hey...Hey, Elena, let me tell you, no matter what happens, what you decide on doing, you’re going to be okay,” she said. “You wanna talk about what’s going on in your head right now?”

Elena pulled away and sniffed, and took a tissue that Bex held out for her. “It was...it was me and my boyfriend...you know...we were just...just fooling around...we weren’t really thinking...but that’s what my mom always warned me, always think, never be dumb...I’m a bad daughter for not listening to her…”

“I know that feeling exactly,” Bex said. 

“I ruined our relationship forever!”

Bex smiled. “Maybe not. I thought I did too. I got pregnant at sixteen, left home a few months after giving birth, and lied to my own daughter for thirteen years about our relationship, saying that we were sisters, that was messy when she found out. And the end result is that, yeah, we fight, get on each other’s nerves, but we’re actually closer than ever.”

“My mom isn’t like your mom though.”

“My mom wallpapered my room with Ivy League posters and signed me up for every ‘Future Doctors of America’ event…”

“...maybe they have some similarities...but still…”

“I know,” Bex said. “There’s no guarantees in life. I thought having a baby young would guarantee my life being ruined. And yet...Andi is the best thing that happened to me. But that was my choice to have her in the end.”

“I...I don’t know what I want…My mom says abortion is killing and going through all of that to put the kid up for adoption…”

“Well, your mom is wrong about abortion being murder. But that doesn’t mean it’s right or wrong for you either. That’s something only you get to decide.” Elena kept her head down, sniffing. “But maybe that’s a decision for later, you still have time. What’s your plan now, for the next 24 hours?”

She shrugged. “I was gonna go home and try not to think about it…”

“Well…” Bex said slowly. “I would recommend that you do think about one thing. The father? Does he know?”

Elena shook her head. “I don’t know if I’m going to tell him. He might want pressure me to do something I’m not ready for...something I don’t want to do.”

Bex nodded. “But...he might be super supportive of you, and it’s pretty good having a sounding board on these sorts of things. But if you’re afraid of the pressure of telling someone...with your permission, you can bring him here, I can bring my husband in, and the four of us can talk it out.”

“You’d help me like that? Won’t he think I’m a screw up?”

“Bowie? He was half of the reason I was pregnant,” she said. “He’s not going to judge you. He was 17 when I had Andi.”

“Did...did you tell him back then?”

“No...and for me...that was my biggest regret.”

* * *

_ “I’m going to kill him. Ham, give me my keys, I’m going to kill him!”  _

_ “Mom! Stop!” Bex stood in between her mother and the door. “He doesn’t know!” _

_ “Well then he’s about to find out!” _

_ “Mom!” Bex grabbed Celia by the shoulders. “Bowie doesn’t know about the kid, and I don’t want him to know.” _

_ “You don’t want him?” _

_ “No...I don’t want to ruin his life. I can handle this, I don’t want him involved in this pregnancy.” _

_ “Bex? Sweetie, did he hurt you or anything?” Ham asked, looking worried and ready to join Celia in the Bowie-killing. _

_ “What?! No! No!” She said. “I just don’t want him there! I want to do this on my own! Bowie has his own life, and I’m the one who’s going to make the final decision about this baby.” _

_ “You’re not planning on keeping it, are you?!” _

_ “Maybe...I haven’t decided. I’m only two months in. I need more time to think about what I’m going to do. And whatever I decide to do, it’s only me who can make that decision. Just me, and nobody else. Not Bowie, and neither of your two.” _

_ “Bex...be reasonable here...you’re not ready to be a mom…”  _

_ “And were you ready for me?” Bex snapped at her mom. _

_ “More than you are! I had a career, I was married, I sat down with my husband and decided to get pregnant!” _

_ “And maybe this is a little more...unconventional, but that doesn’t make it any worse.” _

_ “What about your future?!” _

_ “I’m 16! My average life expectancy is 85, give or take, I think I have plenty of time to figure myself out mom. Some people re-evaluate their entire lives when they turn 40! And they turn out fine!” _

_ Celia hesitated, then she put her purse down. “We’re not going to kill Bowie...but this isn’t over. Not in the slightest.” _

* * *

“So you think I should tell him?”

“Only if you think he’s a good person. If he’s not...then don’t.”

“He’s...he’s a great person…” she said. “I just...I’m scared…”

“It’s okay to be scared,” Bex said. “Are you thinking about staying with him?”

“I don’t know...I mean, I know you didn’t...because of Mrs. Goodman...but...I don’t want to throw away my chances with him, if he really is the best I’m going to get.”

“You can’t think like that. Life takes some weird, unexpected turns and what you think might happen might not. Look, I’m going to give you my personal number, okay. Call me, text me, do whatever you need, okay? For anything.”

“Really?”

“I know how hard it is, and how sometimes even the people who say are supporting you might not be giving you what you need, or insisting that they know better...I’m not going to be one of those. I’ll give you my advice, lend you a shoulder, whatever it takes, okay?”

Elena sniffed and wiped her eyes. “Thank you for being so nice to me.”

Bex smiled and gave her another tissue. “I swore that if my daughter found herself in a situation like this, I’d want her to feel open to come to me. I don’t see how this would only apply to my daughter. You know, you’re really brave for coming out here and taking a shot on a total stranger helping you. I’m proud of you for that.”

“You are? But, I’m not your daughter. You didn’t even know me an hour ago…”

“Doesn’t matter,” she said. “I can be proud of anyone I want to be proud of, and I’m proud of you, and you should be proud of yourself too.”

* * *

_ “You’re really never going to tell him?” Celia sighed, watching her daughter pick out a baggy sweatshirt for classes. Thankfully, Bex was a small person so even when she was showing, she wasn’t big enough that made it impossible to hide.  _

_ “I don’t know about never,” she said. “But right now, I have no plans of telling him. Maybe I’ll change my mind later...probably not. Besides, I broke up with him.” _

_ “I still think you should have told him. This baby is just as much his fault as it is yours.” _

_ “Can we please stop referring to the baby as a mistake, or a fault? Accident is barely acceptable anymore. I don’t want the kid to go through life thinking that they’re some sort of punishment for me, which is also why I’m not telling Bowie. Babies aren’t punishments.” _

_ Celia couldn’t even argue with that, just sighing and looking down. “Eventually it’s going to be too hot to wear these sweatshirts.” _

_ “Well, considering that the year ends in less than a month, that won’t be a problem, especially with this road trip I planned.” _

_ “Road trip?! Rebecca!” _

_ “It’s a short one!” She said. “I’m planning on staying home for most of my pregnancy, then about a week or two before my due date, we’ll all get in a car and just...drive around national monuments, I’ll give birth in another state, and from there, we’ll figure it out.” _

_ “Figure it out! Bex, you’re turning seventeen in five months! You have at least one more year of high school before you can graduate! Not to mention college!” _

_ “Well...maybe I’ll get a GED and not worry about college.” Celia looked at her daughter, then around the room. “Mom? What are you doing?” _

_ “Looking for the hidden cameras, because the only reason my daughter would say something like that is if she put me on a prank show! No college?!” _

_ “Tons of people were successful without college. Billionaires even! And I don’t want to be a billionaire. I just want to be happy, and do well enough so I don’t worry. I think I can handle that.” _

_ Celia stared her down. “I can’t even look at you right now.” _

* * *

“Bowie, you should have seen her today,” Bex said, back at home and clearing the table after they both ate dinner. Bowie was rinsing the dishes and putting them in the dishwasher. “This poor girl...she literally sat in my chair crying for at least a good hour. It…it was like a mirror back into the past.”

Bowie nodded, a small part of him still wishing he was a part of her life at that time. “It’s great that she came to you. You didn’t have that, did you?”

“Seriously Bowie?” She snorted. “The first official gay couple in Shadyside is made up of our daughter’s best friends. There is a huge chance I was the first teenage pregnancy here since the Mayflower.”

He laughed. “Clearly we both did most of our dating outside of this tiny little town, or there would have been a lot more queer couples.”

“Very true,” she chuckled, nudging him a little once she finished and going over to help him. “But...do you think I said the right things?”

“Well, what were you saying? And not specific, but like...why did you say what you did?”

“Well...I just said things I wish someone told me when I was a pregnant sixteen year old.”

“Then you said the right things.” He gave her a kiss on the head and finished up. “I’m gonna hit the shower, and then...movie night?”

“Movie night,” she smiled. With Andi in a SAVA dorm, they stayed alone most nights and were sure that they were going to watch all of Netflix and Hulu before she graduated. She started setting up the couch with the pillows and blankets when she heard a knock at the door. At first, she frowned. She didn’t order food, and she wasn’t expecting anyone. Then she heard a knock again,and she decided to open it, gasping when she saw the other side. “Elena? What’s going on?”

“M..my parents…” she said between sobs, and she couldn’t say anything else before she broke down in Bex’s arms for the second time that day. Bex didn’t need to hear anything else to understand what happened and hugged her tightly. 

“I’m so sorry, sweetie. Come here...come in.” She led her in and on the couch and closed the door behind her. She put a blanket around her and let her cry into her shoulder, rubbing her back. 

* * *

_ Bex wiped her eyes once she arrived at the first red light on her bike. Andi...her baby...called Celia ‘Mama.’ She wasn’t fit to be a mother. Andi didn’t deserve growing up with a screw up sixteen year old and without a father. Maybe having her mother raise her daughter would be better. _

_ Was Celia a giant pain in the ass and completely inflexible? Absolutely. But she also knew how to be a mother, what a baby needed. Yeah Bex rebelled, but maybe if Andi grew up with a cool older sister instead, they could all be better off. She didn’t even know where she was going to go, but away from Shadyside seemed to be the right answer.  _

_ It wasn’t running away, right? _

_ It was forging a path.  _

_ She was forging a path… _

* * *

Bex regretted running away that first time, missing out on some of her daughter’s best years. Thankfully she had many more to come. “Elena...why don’t you stay here for as long as you need to?”

“Really?” She sniffed. 

“Yeah. My daughter’s room is all set up, so it’s a good bed to sleep in, a warm shower to use...fluffy towel in our linen closet…?”

“I..thank you...I...I didn't know where else to go.”

“It’s a good thing you came here then. Why don’t you go shower? I’m going to catch Bowie up, and we’ll all watch a cheesy movie until we can’t keep our eyes open. We can leave everything baby related for tomorrow. Deal?” 

Elena smiled, wiping her eyes. “Deal.”


End file.
